Friday, April 22, 2011

Moormons River - Laura's First Descent!

April showers bring May flowers! 

This week, we lucked out - we got the showers AND the flowers all in one mid-April weekend! The rains on Saturday caused river levels to spike, with most rivers quickly reaching "above recommended" levels. By Sunday morning the Rivanna river in our back yard, which normally flows at about 60 cfs in the summer was hitting flows of 24,900 cfs! It came within two feet of flooding over the bank at our house and the muddy water spilled over the river trail down the road.  

Mom and Dad arrived on the gloomy Saturday afternoon, but we were rewarded on Sunday with picture-perfect weather. Marie took my parents, her mom, John, and me on a spectacular tour of the gardens at Morven. We even got a VIP tour of the Japanese tea house. 

In front of the award-winning tree!
Entrance to the Japanese Garden
My Monday the rivers had calmed down a bit. John styled his PFD (personal first decent) on the North Fork of the Tye with Josh Tracy. Since we both had the afternoon off, we later joined Ethan and Laura for a lovely float down the Doyles-Millington section of the Moormans River. Laura looked like a pro on her PFD. Mom and Dad tagged along at the put-in and take-out as our favorite riverside cheerleaders and photographers.


Ethan and Laura

Beautiful evening light
Bring it on, April!

Monday, April 11, 2011

Powell Returns!

Spent another great day on the river this Saturday! Emily Powell was back in Virginia, so she and I and the three Johns (Tiedeman, Gelb, Ossler) headed to the ol' Trusty - the Maury. The level was around 530 cfs and we did two laps. John (Tiedeman) had an awesome boof off of Corner both times, and I finally ran the Kitchen clean on the second run. Check out the video here.